Let ministers, politicians and mandarins talk to each other and NOT to outsiders.
Let's stop all those bleeding-heart outfits sneaking around Whitehall and party conferences, plucking at politicians' sleeves with hard-luck stories about people who are dying of neglect, starvation or poverty. Lobbyists, see?
Ban think-tankers from talking to politicians. They're just lobbyists for their own worldview, dammit. Likewise commercial organisations, eliminating risk of cash-for access. No unions - and no bastard lobbyists for them, either, whispering in ministers' ears.
That'll keep the buggers pure and guarantee that we get the impartial, evidence-based government (and foreign policy) which we all want, pure and unprejudiced except by the personal opinions of the ministers and mandarins - oh, and backbenchers.
That'll show 'em.
It's bound to work.
Bloody good idea. I think its called democracy. It was tried once but sadly its was abolished years ago. Not enough money in it for the political filth!!
ReplyDelete*facepalm*
ReplyDeleteI believe that when the great John Redwood was a minister he refused to see, or read submissions from, any lobbyists.
ReplyDeletePresumably his view was that it was the job of ministers to form judgments based on their own experience and to develop policy by listening to submissions made in Parliament and (hopefully impartial) advice from civil servants.
Once the door is opened to special pleaders we have policy affected unduly by those with the largest mouths and the deepest pockets. It is inevitably hard for any minister to form a balanced view when he receives a disproportionate amount of input from those with particular self-interests to peddle.
Why any politician might think their political fortunes are likely to be helped by pandering to sectional interests is beyond me. I am quite sure the people of this country want politicians who say what they think are are prepared to back their judgments with honest explanation. Now, and under the previous government, we see too many instances of ministers not being able to deal with detailed questioning because they are putting forward someone else's point of view and not their own.
You wouldn't be a lobbyist, Prodicus?
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